This paper presents a conceptual framework for understanding the influence of alternative paradigms on policy conclusions. Two types of assumptions are associated with mathematical models--meta-assumptions or methodological priors and specification assumptions. Because two different paradigms must assume two different sets of methodological priors, the possibility exists that different problem definitions and hence policy conclusions may emerge from two parallel studies of the same area. In each of two cases presented here, a single problem area has been analyzed with two different methodologies. In each case, different policy conclusions have been reached as a result of the different methodological priors of the two paradigms. The first case involves two models used to analyze changes in retirement policies within the military enlisted system of the United States Armed Services. The second case involves two models used to analyze the determinants of equal educational opportunity in the United States. The dependence of the policy conclusions upon the analytic paradigm employed in a given study has important practical implications for the use of quantitative models in the analysis of social policy situations.

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Date created

• 1976

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• Document

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• Processing documentation available at: https://wiki.albany.edu/display/SCA/Processing+Ingested+Digital+Files

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• Creative Commons BY-NC-ND Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International

  
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dbb17ec8affa7ecbcd419a760cb61093

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7f4e0cd9dcbf7a3743e13c4911e77bc2

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Collection

System Dynamic Society Records

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Collecting area

• This collection is part of the University Archives